Through the Perilous Fight: Life during the War of 1812
What Path to Freedom?
by Hannatu Abbas, Beltsville Academy, Prince Georges County
Source: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/1776-slaveholders%E2%80%99-revolution-review-negro-comradescrown
Introduction: Many people aided in forming an American identity through the War of 1812. Among those who
helped were immigrants from all over the world representing almost every continent including those who were brought
from Africa as slaves. This lesson is designed to focus on the role of African slaves during the War of 1812.
Objective: Student’s will read, analyze, and discuss the options for African Americans during the
War of 1812 and how these roles may have led to freedom for some African Americans.
Background: Students should be familiar with how to make an inference. Prior to this lesson
students should be aware of the colonial practices of using African Americans for slavery. They
should examine when the practice of indentured servitude and slavery became common practice in
the colonies and how slavery helped to support the Southern colonies economies. This will aid
students understanding about the choice slaves made to fight for the British, America, or to
immigrate to other locations. Students should also be aware of the British stance on slavery during
the colonial period. This knowledge will help students understand why the fighting for the British
may have been a more favorable option for slaves.
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Common Core Standards: This lesson meets the requirements for CCR Anchor Standard #1 Read
closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
(http://mdk12.org/share/frameworks/CCSC_SocialStudies_gr6-8r.pdf)
Materials:
 Biography Stories (4)
 Mind Map
Overview: Teacher will conduct this lesson after students have discussed the role of slavery in the
colonies and Europe during the period preceding the War of 1812. The teacher will activate and
engage students by posing the question If you were a slave would you fight for your master? Teacher will
allow students to do a think pair share or turn and talk for two to three minutes. Teacher will then
select students to share what they recorded and or discussed. Students will read a brief biography of
four African Americans. Teacher will explain many times this was an option slaves were required to
make but not all slaves chose to do so. Teacher will explain that during the lesson students are
going to read about four options slaves had during that time: fight for America, fight for the British,
immigrate to another country, or remain as slaves. Each biography will represent one of four
choices African Americans made during the War of 1812. After reading each passage students will
complete a mind map. The mind map will allow students to draw conclusions and make inferences
about the options slaves had during this time period. Directions and a copy of the mind map are
included.
Extension Activities:

Students can research further on some of the men included in the lesson and complete a five
paragraph essay, biography or research paper to determine the outcomes of their choices.

Students can research and map the escape routes used by slaves from Maryland to join the
British military. Since slaves escaped from various plantations and regions in Maryland the
route should begin from Tangier Island.

Students can create a fictional diary entry or story about the life of an African American
based on the information they discovered during the lesson.
References:
http://www.mcnishandweiss.co.uk/history/colonialmarines.html
http://thegrio.com/2012/06/21/african-americans-played-pivotal-role-in-war-of-1812/
http://digital.library.louisville.edu/utils/getfile/collection/etd/id/2076/filename/4873.pdf
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http://www.history.uk.com/history/ending-british-slave-trade/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807
http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/slave_trade/individual_essays/dan.html
http://www.kera.org/2013/02/13/slavery-and-the-war-of-1812/
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Charles Ball
In 1813 Charles Ball, an escaped slave and self-declared “free man of color,”
had a choice. He could row out to the British fleet moored in the Chesapeake
Bay and offer his services to the King, or he could volunteer for the fledgling
American navy and defend his country. Ball chose the latter and he was not
alone.
Ball escaped slavery and as a free man, was lucky enough to have a choice.
Besides the Navy and privateering, there were even a few black battalions in
the American army. But for most American slaves, the options were limited
to the British navy.
As a seaman and cook, he served in the Chesapeake Flotilla under Commodore Joshua Barney
participating in the Battle of St. Leonard Creek. After Barney ordered the flotilla sunk to keep the
boats out of the hands of the invading British, Ball marched to Bladensburg with Barney and served
in one of his cannon crews. His memoir describes what later came to be called the Bladensburg
Races:
“I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, when he ordered us to retreat, as I was told by the officer
who commanded our gun. If the militia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to charge
the British, in close fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them in a short time;
but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs.”
Ball also served during the Battle for Baltimore. Ball was discharged from service in 1816 and lived
in Maryland until he was recaptured.
The other option for many slaves was to fight on the side of the British for their freedom. The slave
owners, naturally, were furious at the loss of what they thought of as “property,” and sent
delegations to the British demanding that the slaves be returned. Even Ball, a former slave, tried to
convince escaped slaves to come back to U.S. soil. He “went amongst them” he records in his memoir,
“And talked to them a long time, on the subject of returning home; but found that their heads were full of notions of
liberty and happiness in some of the West India islands’.”
Ball soon fought against some of the very black men he had tried to convince.
Since Ball was not entirely free even after serving in the war, he went in and out of slavery during
the course of his life.
Sources: http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/essays/black-soldiers-and-sailors-war-of-1812/,
http://www.jefpat.org/1812local.html
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William and Frisby Harris
Slavery was a large part of Southern Maryland’s economy and
Maryland’s main cash crop through the early 19th century was
tobacco. Farming tobacco required a large labor force to plant
and harvest the crop resulting in large numbers of slaves in the
Chesapeake region. According to the 1810 census there were
22,372 slaves living in Southern Maryland, and Charles County
led the state with 12,435 slaves being registered there. Many of
the slaves were field hands who helped to plant and harvest
crops or house slaves who were “raised to housework.”
Slaves were not only valuable because of the labor they provided though. As tobacco prices fell and
slave owners had less incentive to house and feed large numbers of slaves. When the international
slave trade was abolished in 1808 many Southern Maryland slave owners sold their slaves to deep
South plantations. The War of 1812 impacted slave owners even more when slaves viewed this as an
opportunity to seek freedom. The British promised slave owners compensation for escaped slaves.
Though slaves were valued up to $600 in the south, the few masters awarded compensation were
generally only paid $280 per slave. Slaves were not only valuable because of the labor they provided
though.
18 year old Calvert County resident Frisby Harris was born into slavery on the plantation William
Harris, above Parker’s Creek overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. William Harris loaned Frisby to Dr.
John Beall at some point during the war during which time Frisby made his escape on July 16, 1814.
He helped the British loot tobacco and furniture from Beall and burn the manor house while Beall
was away serving as an officer in the militia. Frisby joined the British soldiers and later helped burn
the Calvert County courthouse and jail in Prince Frederick.
At the time of his escape, Frisby Harris was valued at five hundred dollars but according to the
treaties signed at the end of the war, William Harris’ estate received compensation from Britain in
the amount of $280 in 1828. There was no record of Frisby Harris after the end of the war, but it is
probable that he ended up in Nova Scotia or Tangier Island, Maryland with many of the other
escaped slaves.
Sources: http://www.destinationsouthernmaryland.com/c/399/1812frisby_harris,
http://www.destinationsouthernmaryland.com/c/384/1812slaverysmd
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Richard Pierpoint
Pierpoint’s odyssey began in West Africa, where about 1760 he “was made a
Prisoner and Sold as a Slave.” Shipped to the American colonies, he became
the slave of a British officer. During the American Revolution he enlisted on
the side of the British in order to gain his freedom. Although by 1779 it was
rare for blacks to serve in the northern British armies, much less the loyalist
provincial corps, Pierpoint was a pioneer in John Butler’s rangers. After his
service in the American Revolution, Pierpoint settled in Canada earning his
living as a laborer. He and 18 other free blacks petitioned for a settlement
enabling veterans of the late war and other free blacks land adjacent to white
settlement. This request was not granted. In 1812 when war broke out once
again Pierpoint, petitioned the government to form a Black regiment. His request was granted with
the condition that the commanding officer would be a White man and this eventually gave rise to
Corps of Men of Colour on the Niagara Frontier. Pierpoint himself joined on as a private. The unit
consisted of about 30 men from the Niagara region, many of whom had escaped slavery in the
United States. The men fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights and during the siege of Fort
George (Niagara-on-the-Lake) on 27 May 1813. The corps remained with Brigadier-General John
Vincent’s army on the retreat west to the head of Burlington Bay (Hamilton Harbour) and then
followed it east again after the battle of Stoney Creek on 6 June 1813. For the remainder of the war
the blacks were used for labour or garrison duty, stationed either at Fort Mississauga (Niagara-onthe-Lake) or Fort George and possibly seeing action at Lundy’s Lane on 25 July 1814. When the
corps was disbanded in 1815 Pierpoint returned to the life of a laborer in the Grantham area. On
21 July 1821 Pierpoint, then a resident of Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake), petitioned
Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland for aid since he was finding it “difficult to obtain a
livelihood by his labor” and was “above all things desirous to return to his native country.” Instead
of being given aid to return to West Africa, the old soldier received a location ticket for 100 acres of
land in unsettled Garafraxa Township on the Grand River, near present-day Fergus.
Sources: http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01e.php?&id_nbr=3606&interval=25&&PHPSESSID=c9ha6c8c9gbrdlairqi3ccnc36,
http://www.blackhistorycanada.ca/events.php?themeid=21&id=5
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The Merikens
During the War of 1812 the British offered freedom to any slave willing to escape to freedom to
take up arms against their former masters. These free slaves became members
of the British Colonial Marines. When Sir Alexander Cochrane took over
command of Great Britain’s Bermuda headquarters in April 1814, he issued a
proclamation for ‘all those who may be disposed to emigrate from the United States’ at
British posts and ships. He informed his second in command, Rear-Admiral
George Cockburn, to recruit a body of Colonial Marines from refugees, and to
find a location in the Chesapeake as a base for British forces and as a safe
haven for those who made their escape from American slavery.
Cockburn selected Tangier Island as his base, in the middle of the Chesapeake
where he already had a group of refugees who stayed with the fleet as volunteers, and these formed
the nucleus of the new corps of men he recruited and trained. Within six weeks they were ready, and
on May 18, 1814 they enlisted as Colonial Marines. Their dedication to freedom is evidenced by the
quote of four who had been heard planning their escape with one saying determinedly ‘I shall go when
and where I please.’ This group helped lead the new corps as the first sergeants. The Colonial Marines
served in prominent battles like the attack on Washington, assault on Baltimore, and faced Joshua
Barney’s flotilla men, often facing off against black soldiers fighting for America.
Two and a half years later many of the same soldiers established the Company Villages community
in Trinidad. The six companies were eventually settled in south-east Trinidad between 1815 and
1816 in what is now known as the Company Villages along the Moruga Road with each being
granted 16 acres of land. The name "Merikin" derives from American and is used to refer to the
many descendants who sought refuge during and after the War of 1812.
Sources: http://www.mcnishandweiss.co.uk/history/colonialmarines.html
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What Path to
Freedom?
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This Mind Mapping activity can serve as an assessment of the lesson. Teacher’s use this as the
master copy to make copies of the assignment for the students. The directions on how to complete
the mind map follow.
Directions: The central circle is the title of the activity
The next circle is divided into four quadrants. The name of one person from each passage should
be placed in one quadrant.
The outer quadrant should include details from each passage related to the person. This
information will help the students to make an inference so the teacher can decide how many details
are sufficient. I recommend at least 3-4 details from each text.
The outer section should be used for students to make an inference. Students should draw a
conclusion based on the leading question posted in the lesson If you were a slave would you fight for your
master? Teachers should evaluate the responses based on the text support provided and the
reasonableness of the conclusion.
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